PRACTICING PERMACULTURE
The Gossamer-Glass Inspiration Farm in Bellingham, Washington uses no tills, conventional irrigation system or synthetic fertilizer. Here’s how they practice permaculture.
Story and photos by Michelle Dannehy
The Gossamer Glass-Inspiration Farm is a permaculture and biodynamic farm located in Bellingham, Washington, owned and managed by Brian Kerkvliet and his wife Alexandra King. Kerkliet and King began growing their own food 20 years ago with the goal of feeding their daughters high-quality, nutritional foods.
Permaculture farming is an alternative farming method that works to mimic old growth forests and established, stabilized ecosystems. On a permaculture farm, old growth trees and understory are replaced with productive, food producing trees.
Biodynamic farming is a method considering a farm as a single organism that is able to provide for all its nutrient, biological, pollination and water needs.
With the diversity of methods for maintaining healthy soil, working the land, pest and weed management, and water retention, Inspiration Farm is able to be a no-till, no-synthetic fertilizer and no-irrigation farm.
Inspiration Farm utilizes large ditches called swales. These ditches are built to collect and retain rain and snowfall during the winter, which can then slowly soak into the soil.
“We are all about designing our systems so we capture and hold 100 percent of the water that falls on our land,” Kerkvliet said.
The use of swales and other water retention tools make it unnecessary to irrigate the farm during the summer.
The annual crop beds at Inspiration Farm are designed to act like miniature swales. The paths between the beds fill with water in the winter allowing for greater water retention.
The farm also utilizes pocket ponds — ponds that only hold water during the winter. These ponds help to recharge the aquifer (IF1, 30:37).
Pocket ponds also accumulate silt, leaves and other organic matter, producing rich soil. They harvest about six inches of soil out of the bottom of these ponds each year.
Comfrey, a perennial herb, is a dynamic accumulator and a bio-accumulator. Dynamic accumulators have long taproots that mine for minerals deep down in the soil. As a bio-accumulator, comfrey then stores these nutrients in its abundant leafy-matter. Dynamic and bio-accumulators are useful because they can be chopped down and left to decompose, making the nutrients they have accumulated available to other plants.
Inspiration Farm also uses nitrogen fixing plants, such as Lupine to bring nitrogen back into the soil. Nitrogen-fixing plants have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in the soil. These plants feed the bacteria sugars, and in return, the bacteria turn atmospheric nitrogen in into a form that plants can use.
Inspiration Farm uses pigs to clear land for farming use.
“They are the rototiller of animals. If we need a space with more intense land disturbance, we will put pigs there.”
After pigs clear the land, chickens are used to prep the land to be used as annual crop beds. The chickens eat weed seeds, slug eggs, bugs and cutworms, providing pest and weed management. They also till and fertilize the soil.
“They’re our hardest, longest workers on the farm as far as bed preparation,” Kerkvliet said.
Inspiration farm also makes its own compost. The compost is used as a catalyst for the growth of healthy microorganism in the soil.
Biodynamic farming and permaculture are being practiced far beyond Inspiration Farm and on larger scales.
Demeter, a biodynamic agriculture brand, has certified over 4,000 farms in 53 countries.
Kerkvliet said that in some places, like Australia, permaculture has become mainstream. According to a 2008 article in Ecos journal, Billabong, a 2,500 acre organic cattle farm in Australia, is an example of where permaculture has successfully been applied in large-scale agriculture.
